Before Android 2.0 greatly revamped the contacts app and manufacturers began re-skinning Android, Phonebook was a must-have app. It was a much-improved contacts experience that looked better and provided more control options. Phonebook 2.0 disappeared from the Android Market long ago, but it has returned to a world where you don’t really need it, but you may want it.

Phonebook 2.0 is similar to the communication aggregators like Address Book, Timescape, et al. In addition to managing your calls and SMS, the app can link to your contacts’ Facebook or Twitter profiles, allowing users to have a unified look at all communications. Click on Bob in Accounting’s name in Phonebook and you’ll see all of the email and phone exchanges, as well as see his social networking updates. Note: Unlike Sense 2.1, you can actually sync only one group with this app.

Phonebook 2.0 has a polished inteface worth considering for anyone who doesn’t like the look or feel of their default contacts app. One current flaw is that the photo icons can lag when scrolling through contacts. Once that is corrected in future updates, and a widget or two are added, Phonebook 2.0 will be a great app to have on your phone.

9 Comments

I used to have a WM6.1 Phone with an extra Tab on each contact where I could scribble notes or extra information which was really handy as I could when I had met someone eg write the text regarding the company or impression or relation to another contact… that is gone now with my Android 2.1 phone and it does not synchronize from my outlook anymore and the option is not available in any of the extended options of the Phonebook in Android… any hints on how to incorporate that in the Android Thxs! Esteban

I agree that on the face Phonebook is better than the "People" app that comes loaded on the HTC Evo. The pros include… Despite instructions all over the web, "People" doesn't allow for custom phone number fields (eg "Mom's Cell" & "Dad's Cell") and Phonebook does. Plus the "Save" & "Cancel" buttons float when editing a contact entry in Phonebook, much more user-friendly than having to scroll to the bottom in People. That said, there a number of significant cons… The custom phone number fields get cut off after 4 or 5 characters in the display. I can understand there being SOME limit, but if you allow custom fields, maybe that limit should be around 10-15 characters, not 5. Even the standard "Mobile" has 6 characters and doesn't get cut off. And no, Facebook integration does NOT work. Continuously get a "Network Problem" error after entering my correct Facebook login info. Also, the "People" app allows input of multiple birthdays in an entry, eg "Mom & Dad". Phonebook not only doesn't display anything past the first birthday, it wipes out the other birthdays when that entry is edited in Phonebook. Not good. Finally, since I transferred my number from my old AT&T account, my Evo was initially activated with a temporary phone number. When calling into voicemail from Phonebook, Phonebook calls that temporary number, not my ported number, resulting in "the number or code you dialed is incorrect" error. Once the developers correct the issues above, I'm sure this will be a great app!

I have a G1 with Froyo on it. Have installed this app and find that this app does not list all the numbers I have for a particular contact. If have more than one number ( like one for Home , one for mobile) for any contact, it lists only one number. I personally think this is a big drwaback.

You should check out MobilCTI Power Dialer for Android. Basically it will let you organize contacts into separte campaigns and allow you call and track these contacts one after other. Very good Productivity application. http://mobilcti.webstarts.com/index.html

Hey Guys… check out this cool app which could be a potential phonebook killer… The app is called "Link My World" ….. the link is here https://market.android.com/details?id=LinkMyWorld… See the video in the link for more details

Downloaded Link My World app and it sorted all my phonebbok problems. Now i can sort parts of my contacts and send it to someone else. Divide my phonebook among multiple xml files and also save coordinates in the app itself. One hell of a app